Sunday, May 20, 2018

Back on June 1, 2017 I posted a blog looking at The Lost WWE Iron Man Matches. On that post I presented all the Iron Man Matches that took place before the famous WrestleMania XXII Iron Man match between Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels.

A comment was left on that post recently by Roy Lucier where he mentioned one happening in 1987 in Montreal. Looking into this I discovered several Iron Man or Marathon matches that took place not in 1987 but in 1989 and they all featured The Rockers vs. The Rougeau Brothers. I've described the matches the best I could based on information I found on them. Most of it from The History of WWE.

August 4, 1989 House Show Montreal, Quebec

The Rockers: Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty defeated The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers: Jacques & Raymond 3 falls to 2 in overtimeThe Rougeau's won falls 1& 2, the Rockers won falls 3 & 4. The Rockers won the 5th and deciding fall when Michaels reversed an inside cradle by Raymond putting Jannetty on top after Jacques has done the same moments earlier.

August 6, 1989 House Show Chicago, IllinoisThe Rockers: Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty defeated The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers: Jacques & Raymond in overtimeDespite the scheduled 60 minute time limit the deciding fall in overtime was at the 45 minute mark

The Rockers: Shawn Michaels & Marty Jannetty defeated The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers: Jacques & Raymond 3 falls for 2 in overtimeThe Rougeau's won falls 1& 2, the Rockers won falls 3 & 4. The Rockers won the 5th and deciding fall when Michaels hit a piledriver on Jacques and put Jannetty on top for the pin after the Rougeaus had attempted a spike piledriver on Jannetty

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Thursday, May 17, 2018

Here is my review of Limitless Wrestling's Feed the Need in Portland, Maine at Club Portland on May 11, 2018

All photos are courtesy of Harry Aaron you can view his entire album on his flickr page.

Match 1: Green Ant, Thief Ant and Nytehawk defeated Hermit Crab, Cajun Crawdad and The Whisper
Going in I didn't really expect much from this match but I was very surprised with it. This was a throwback Chikara match. All the guys worked hard and it showed. If Chikara had more matches like this I might actually watch some of their shows.
7/10

Match 2: Brody King defeated Eli Everfly

Brody beat the piss out of Everfly. Everfly did get some really cool high flying spots in but in the end he lost to a sick piledriver.
7.5/10

In Ring: Ace Romero comes out and says he wants to know who his opponent is right now. Anthony Greene comes out. This causes enough of a distraction for Brett Domino to come out and attack Ace Romero, which leads to

Great match with tons of crazy action. I was very impressed with The Rascals and I'm hoping they come back. In the end The Dream Team got, in my opinion, a surprise win.
8/10

Match 5: Ashley Vox defeated Rachel Ellering

This match was ok but it was very clear that Rachel Ellering was on a completely different level than Ashley Vox. She may have even been holding some back. The ending was very quick and unexpected. I didn't see it coming.
6/10

In Ring: Ashley Vox says she has qualified for the Vacationland Cup.

In Ring: The Maine State Posse and Joey Eastman are in the ring for their 5 minutes. Jon Alba was there to kinda be a moderator. Aidan Aggro and Alexander Lee basically tell Joey Eastman to pound sand but Danger Kid teases some dissension among the ranks of MSP. Joey Eastman says that he wants to be the father he can't be to his son to MSP. Danger Kid then slaps Eastman. Eastman then says that he guarantees and MSP victory in July because they will be facing each other in a Triple Threat Match in the Vacationland Cup.

Match 6: Anthony Greene defeated JT Dunn in a Street Fight

Sick match. Very brutal. Anthony Greene got slammed on tacks, took a tombstone on a chair and fell through a table from the top rope but somehow still won. Dunn set up what looked like a chair table and went to slam Greene off the top through it but Brett Domino came out and helped Greene slam Dunn through it instead. Check this out it was really awesome
9/10

In Ring: Ace Romero comes out and tells Anthony Greene that in July they will fight each other in a Steel Cage Match.

Match 7: Darby Allin defeated Zachary Wentz
Crazy fast paced match. I don't understand how these guys weren't blown up. The end was very quick with Allin getting Wentz in a neat trapping pin. I would have like to see this match go another 5 minutes.
8/10

Match 8: Skylar defeated Kimber Lee

Very good match here. The best Skylar match I've ever seen. She has improved a ton in her time away from Limitless Wrestling. They beat the hell out of each other for a good 10-15 minutes until Skylar got a surprise roll up for the win.
8.75/10

Match 9: Ace Austin defeated AJ Gray, Jake Parnell, Tony Deppen, Bolt Brady and Kevin Ku in a 6 Man Scramble
This may have been the best 6 man scramble in Limitless Wrestling history. Fast paced with tons of action. All of the guys impressed especially Kevin Ku. I saw him wrestle his first few matches 4 or 5 years ago and he has improved drastically. With the win it seems that Ace Austin will become a regular.
8/10

They battled all over ringside for a good 5 minutes before the bell even rang. Once the action got into the ring it settled into a solid tag match. I was surprised to see The Thick Boys lose since they are the top tag team in Limitless Wrestling right now.
7/10

Match 11: Josh Briggs defeated Teddy Hart
Absolutely sick match. How these guys were able to walk afterwards is beyond me. They hit at least a dozen sick, backbreaker type moves. In the end Briggs got the win after a chokeslam backstabber. Check this match out. Its great.
9/10

In Ring: Teddy Hart puts over the fans, Indy wrestling and Josh Briggs.

In Ring: Josh Briggs says he will win the Vacationland Cup.

This show scored an 88 out of 110 for an overall score of 80.00%. This was an awesome show. Especially the street fight and the main event. Those 4 guys gave everything they had. I was also very impressed with Skylar vs. Kimber Lee. This was the best women's match in Limitless Wrestling history. Check this show out you won't be disappointed.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page and while you're at it check out my weekly podcast Podcast of 1,000 Holds on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network.

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

While living in Memphis, I was only able to attend two Memphis Wrestling events. My dad enjoyed watching the WWF, but he never cared for WCW or any other promotion. I knew convincing him to take me to a Memphis Championship Wrestling show was going to be a challenge. One Saturday morning, I was watching MCW when they advertised a show at the Mall of Memphis called the War on Ice. The gimmick for the show was they were putting the ring in the center of the ice skating rink found within the mall. I figured I could convince my dad to take my stepmom shopping and I could enjoy some wrestling while they were walking around. Surprisingly it worked!

Prior to the show, an autograph table was set up with some of the stars of MCW at the time. MCW was the developmental territory for the WWE, so whenever the WWE ran out of ideas for a character or felt they needed some further development they sent them to Memphis. This particular signing had Curtis Hughes, The Mean Street Posse, Reckless Youth, Steven Regal, and Jerry Lawler all in attendance.

Everyone was nice (for the most part), but I most fondly remember the Mean Street Posse being very cool. I never cared for their characters in the WWE, but in MCW they were given time to show their wrestling ability and were able to grow out of that “Shane’s Friends” gimmick. I wouldn’t go as far to say I was a fan, but I didn’t hate the guys. When I approach them to get their autographs, they were very nice and engaging. They talked to me for a few minutes and were cracking jokes. I just wasn’t expecting that out boys from Greenwich.

Curtis Hughes and I had some communication issues with the spelling of my name. It took entirely too long to sort out and he became quite frustrated with me. I didn’t let that bother me much. Although, now that I think about it that might have been why the Mean Street Posse were so nice to me. That just makes those guys even cooler in my book.

The show took place on June 10th, 2000. The only mention of I can find online has a small scan of the advertisement for the show. In attendance were: The Mean Street Posse, Jerry Lawler, Reckless Youth, Jim Neidhart, The Blue Meanie, and K-Crush (now known as R-Truth).

I managed to purchase a copy of MCW's Best of 2000 show a few months ago and on it were a few clips from from the War on Ice. I've uploaded them to YouTube and you can see it for yourself below. Sadly, this is the only footage I've been able to get my hands on and they screwed up by fast forwarding through the beginning of the highlights in the clip I obtained.

Jerry Lawler with The Kat faced off against K-Krush for the Southern Heavyweight Title in the Main Event. Sadly, I haven’t been able to find a page with the results or card from the show. I do remember on more than one occasion the heels in the match slipping and sliding on the ice while the baby faces stood on the apron and laughed.

The King made his entrance on a zamboni, as only a king should. I actually saw him in attendance at a couple of Mississippi Riverkings games riding a zamboni a few years later.

On the June 17, 2000 edition of Memphis Championship Wrestling some highlights from the War on Ice were shown, (and then repeated on the Best of 2000 show) but as far as I know the event was never released in its entirety. Those early months of MCW were fantastic, and I’m really thankful I got to experience some of it live. The Mall of Memphis was closed in 2003 and torn down in 2004. The Ice Chalet inside was the only ice rink in Memphis and with the mall’s closure so went the only ice rink. There is a fantastic site dedicated to the Mall of Memphis called Mall of Memphis: Remembering the Marketplace of the Midsouth. If you love dead malls like I do, be sure to check out their site.

Friday, May 11, 2018

For the third consecutive year Mikey, Roy, and I made the drive to the Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Massachusetts for a Ring of Honor show. This time it was a joint show with New Japan Pro Wrestling for night one of the War of the Worlds tour!

Roy picked my up and we stopped at Val's Drive In for lunch on our way to Mikey's house. It was Wednesday where hamburgers are buy 1 get 1 free, so two burgers and their own Root Beer in a frosty mug was only $5.60. Can't beat it! Val's is an old school carhop drive in where you eat in your car and they make their own root beer. You can read more about it here on my other blog: Val's.

When we got to the building we tried to park in the same lot behind the Auditorium that we always parked at and we couldn't. It was near 4pm and the lot wouldn't be available until five when the attendant arrived, only talent could park there. So Mikey moved the card to the street and we fed the meter. It was annoying at first but worked out for the best because it was only $2 for the meter and it would have been $10 to park in the lot.

The doors opened at 5:30pm and we were at the front of the line at out door so we got right to the meet and greet table to purchase out tickets and we all were just buying one to meet Jushin Thunder Liger. In the past ROH was charging $20 for a single wrestler and $30 for a tag team, at this even there were charging $30 - $40 for a single wrestler and for tag teams like Evil & Sanada there was no tag team discount. They are not two guys thrown together they are the current IWGP Heavyweight World Tag Team Champions. Liger was $30.

We got to Liger's table and I was the first person in line just after 5:30pm. Over the next several minutes everyone but Liger came out to their table. Jay White was sharing a table with Liger, Dalton Castle was to my left and Rocky Romero with Roppongi 3K were to my right next to Jay.

I had some great conversations with Dalton and Jay to pass the time, but didn't want to bother there. A couple times Jay White even asked someone where Liger was. At one point Dalton asked me to tell Rocky he said Hi, I did. Rocky asked me to say Hello, I did.

Dalton: Ask him what he's wearing

Rocky: Hot sweatpants, black underwear, and a Roppongi 3K t-shirt

Dalton: Tell him I'm wearing sweatpants with a mustard stain that I got from the YMCA lost and found and I'm using a frayed extension cord to hold them up

Rocky was impressed with my relaying skills.

Eventually Rocky went to find out where Liger was, it was getting close to 7pm and that was when the pre-show match started. He came back and let us know that Liger wasn't coming out until intermission and he and Jay genuinely felt bad that we had waited there for an hour and a half for nothing. We weren't the only ones that waited, Liger had a very long line.

Liger did come out at intermission and we raced to get inline. Good thing too because they did not extend intermission past the 15 minute mark and we made it back to out seats as Silas Young and company were getting in the ring.

I was frustrated earlier but man-o-man this picture is so awesome and was worth the wait. I doubt I will ever have the chance to meet Liger again or see him wrestle in person. We only get a short time with him but he was very kind and appreciative.

The set up in the venue was essentially the same for the two pay per views that we attended here, except there was no crane camera. This was a house show that was being streamed online for their streaming service Honor Club so there was a hard camera and two handhelds.

Great opening match for the main card huge ovation for Liger. It was amazing hearing his music kick on and seeing his entrance in person. It was a good match Liger still moves exceptionally well in the ring. The finish came when the Briscoes hit Flip with a combination top rope splash mountain neck breaker, it was pretty bad ass.

This match was just okay for me. It was great seeing local talent Skylar on this big show. I've seen her many times at Limitless Wrestling and she just keeps getting better everytime

Dalton Castle Promo

World Champion Dalton Castle and the boys came out. Dalton cut a promo that he has a stack of nagging injuries that have caught up with him and he can't defend his championship. He lead us all to believe that he was going to relinquish the title, instead he said he wasn't and that he would be back soon from injury.

This was reminiscent of back in 1997 when WWE aired Thursday Raw Thursday live from the very same building we were in and Shawn Michaels gave his famous "Lost my smile" speech before relinquishing the WWE Championship.

Taven came out in the beginning of the match cutting a promo about how his opportunity to wrestle for the World title in his hometown has been stolen. This match was pretty good except for the antics of Marseglia climbing under the ring for way took long. That whole spot was garbage.

SoCal Uncensored ran out stealing back their Six Man Tag championships while Daniels distracted The Kingdom leading to Coast 2 Coast getting the win. Taven got on the mic post match and challenged them to a title match later, Daniels excepted.

Cheeseburger defeated Bully Ray by count-out

This was a squash where Bully Ray powerbombed Cheeseburger three times then let himself be counted out and then powerbombed Cheeseburger again. Not for nothing, but these were some weak ass powerbombs compared to what I've seen in the past.

Big ovation for all the members of the Bullet Club and Bernard. Great match, lots of high flying spots and big moments. Marty appeared to be frustrated with Cody and Bernard even accidentally superkicking him.

The finish came when Cody reversed a standing suplex into cross rhodes. Cody celebrated like he just won the world title for a second time. Marty emptied a trash can of streamers onto Bernard and stormed away.

These three were supposed to team up against SoCal Uncensored but instead had a triple threat against each other. Chuckie and White started teaming against Lethal until they eventually turned on each other. Through-out the match Lethal showed hints of his impersonations of both Randy Savage and Ric Flair, it was great.

The surprise finish came when Lethal hit the lethal injection on Jay White and Chuckie rolled up Lethal in a Jack Knife pin.

Takahashi got a huge ovation when he came out but it was topped by the Young Bucks. My god the Bucks are simply amazing and such a treat to watch live. Tremendous match with great high spots, some comedy including Bushi spitting mist at Matt, who then superkicked everyone including his brother before putting the sharpshooter on the referee. His reaction when Nick washed his eyes out and he saw it was the ref was hilarious.

After the matches Mikey and Roy wanted a bite to eat so we headed to Applebees. After we were seated a bunch of the wrestlers came in. Sitting two tables down from us was The Young Bucks, Cody, and SoCal Uncensored. Directly behind the halfway behind us they sat Evil, Hiromu, Sumie, Yoh, and an unmasked Jushin Thunder Liger.

We didn't want to be "those guys" and bother the wrestlers but as we were leaving and because I only had to turn around I didn't think the New Japan talent for the great matches and from coming all this way. They were appreciative saying thank you.

I almost wanted to ignore Liger or pretend that I didn't know it was him, because you are not supped to know what masked wrestlers look like under their masks. But he was the most talkative saying "Thank you for enjoying the show" and even calling out "Have a good night" with a big smile and a wave as we were talking to the door.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment, read my other posts, and like my blogs Facebook page and while you're at it check out my weekly podcast Podcast of 1,000 Holds on the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network.

Contributors

Michael J. Labbe

Husband, father of three, and lover of all things professional wrestling Michael is the founder of The Wrestling Insomniac and posts unique articles about wrestling, live event reports, and regular columns The Last Match and Signed Trading Cards.

superstarreview@gmail.com

Brandon Myers

Brandon, a wrestling fan of over thirty years, enjoys all wrestling but spends most of his time watching classic Memphis and WCW matches. Brandon contributes live event reports, documentary/DVD reviews, and other assorted wrestling posts.

LuchaKoopa@gmail.com

Roy Kenny

Roy 's column Roy's Reviews focuses on reports from events he has attended and wrestling DVD's.